


Summer Storm

by ArtemisPendragon (ArtemisPendragyn)



Series: Written in the Stars [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (although they don't know it yet), Angst, Complete, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pining, Post-Canon, Post-TRoS, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 11:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22849111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtemisPendragyn/pseuds/ArtemisPendragon
Summary: "Go find Poe,” Rey said, and embraced him. “I'm sure that whatever this is, you'll work it out. I have the feeling it would take quite a lot to break what you two have."For a moment, Finn froze, slightly embarrassed and unsure. He broke away from her embrace, rubbing the back of his neck, jittery with nerves. "I'm not sure what we have. That's part of the problem."She put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Go find out, then."
Relationships: Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Jessika Pava/Rey (implied), Poe Dameron/Finn
Series: Written in the Stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1638520
Comments: 6
Kudos: 71





	Summer Storm

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after my one-shot "Fire in the Sky" and before my longer WIP "The Redshift Rebellion" but can also be read as a stand-alone fic. It takes place roughly a week after the end of TRoS. Hope y'all enjoy it! :)

****

**Summer Storm**

"I don't know, Rey," Finn said, picking at the embroidery on an unnecessarily fancy napkin. "He's been distant. Distracted. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's avoiding me."

Rey raised an eyebrow. She rested an elbow on the table, cupping her chin in her palm. "Avoiding you? Why?"

Finn sighed, irritation and concern blending into a slurry of confusing emotion. "That's the problem. I have no idea."

"He's tired. We're all tired, Finn." She reached across the table and took his hand, smiling. Slanting through sky-high windows, unfiltered sunlight cut open grey clouds and caught in her hair, bringing out streaks of blonde and hazel. Like an ethereal being wreathed in light, crowned in gold, her hope lit up the whole room. "You didn't do anything wrong. Trust me, he's not avoiding you on purpose."

Finn's heart sank. Here was this beautiful, wise, wonderful person—a person he now considered family—telling him everything would be okay, and yet the tightness in his chest refused to loosen. "Last week I went to talk to him after he found us watching the fireworks on the Spire, and he seemed pretty messed up. I think he was drunk, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure he hasn't slept for more than four hours a night since the war ended. Possibly even before that."

Rey bit her lip, drawing her nails over the fine mahogany table, leaving gouges in the clear polish. "Oops." She scrubbed her sleeve over the marks to smooth them out, grimacing.

"Don't worry," Finn said. "I've done way worse. Being in a place like this is hard; like, can you believe all the laws they have here on Coruscant? It's insane! How the hell am I supposed to remember all of them, let alone follow them all? Even the First Order didn't have this many rules."

"I know, right?" Rey covered the scratches with her elbow as a particularly snooty-looking waiter swept by. "Sometimes I forget I'm not just some feral kid from Jakku anymore. But war hero or not, I still have no idea what I'm doing in places like this."

Finn nodded. Neither of them were used to dining in fine restaurants in hyper-modern skyscrapers thirty stories up, waited on and pampered and praised at every turn, and if Finn was being honest with himself (something he was trying to do more often these days), it was almost as exhausting as fighting a war.

Almost.

"Finn." Rey's voice dragged him out of his increasingly dire thoughts. "Have you tried talking to him about any of this? If he _is_ avoiding you, which I doubt he is, I—"

"No. No, I can't, that would just be—" he gestured aimlessly, sighing deeply. "If there's nothing broken, don't try to fix it, or whatever the saying is. But the point is, if I ask him what's wrong and he doesn’t think anything is, he's gonna take it badly. He's already on the edge of a full-blown breakdown and I don't wanna be the one to push him over that edge."

"I highly doubt he'd want you to treat him like he's made of glass." Rey's tone parked at the crossroads of sympathy and disapproval. "You really do just need to talk things out. Do you know where he's been the past few days?"

Finn shrugged. "We haven't talked much. I think he's putting together a team to tackle some of the search and rescue and prisoner liberation assignments on First Order-occupied planets. He's cagey about it, though, and changes the subject whenever it comes up. Which has only been a couple times, mostly because we just... haven't talked."

Rey nodded. "And now you're headed off to start your rehabilitation project, and I'm leaving tonight for the outer rim. You're not sure when you'll see him again. That's it, isn't it?"

"I'm just worried," he admitted. "He's not exactly the poster child for healthy habits."

Rey's smile was a flash of light in the growing dark. A storm was coming, Finn thought as the clouds thickened and the sun faded. A summer storm.

"None of us are," Rey said after a few moments, her smile fading with the light. She passed a hand over her face and for a moment Finn saw through her cheerful exterior and glimpsed a woman weighed down by the weariness and stress of a thousand lifetimes. Despite their victory, there was so much left to do. It still didn't feel quite real, and because of that, no one could relax, could stop to enjoy their hard-won peace and freedom. _Move,_ the specter of war demanded, _before time runs out. Before the day ends, and another begins. Before the darkness closes in._

Finn stood up, suddenly dry-mouthed and shaky. "I'll talk to him. You're right, we just need to sort things out like adults."

Rey stood too. "Like adults," she agreed. The weariness fell from her posture and expression like a shawl being shed, and together they strode across the restaurant, dodging waiters balancing plates of exotic meats and drinks, leaving their table empty and slightly more scratched up than before. 

Just outside the restaurant, Finn turned to her. "Hey," he said, "you know I love you, right?"

She beamed at him. "You'd better," she said, and he laughed—an instinct, muscle memory. "Come here." She hugged him briefly and he could feel her smiling against his shoulder. "Go find Poe. I'm sure that whatever this is, you'll work it out. I have the feeling it would take quite a lot to break what you two have."

For a moment, Finn froze, slightly embarrassed and unsure. He broke away from her embrace, rubbing the back of his neck, jittery with nerves. "I'm not sure _what_ we have. That's part of the problem."

She put a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Go find out, then."

He inhaled, held it, exhaled. And then he smiled, as real and honest as he could manage. "Thanks, Rey. I'll head over to his place right now."

"I'd try the HQ hangar," she said. "He's been in there tinkering with his ship all day, according to Jess."

"Thanks for the tip," Finn said. "You been hanging out with Jess a lot lately?"

"She's nice." Rey said.

"So are you. I'm glad you're getting along."

Rey's smiled, but it quickly faded. He saw a flash of nervousness in her eyes, of anxiety and anticipation. "I'll still see you tonight before I leave, won't I?"

"No way I won't be there."

"Perfect. And good luck, Finn."

"Thanks," he said. "I'll need it."

* * *

The hangar was dark and empty. It was a vast room full of aircraft of all kinds, including salvaged First Order ships waiting to be refitted or scrapped. The smell of fuel and ozone lingered eternally; Finn paused for a moment, breathing it in, trying not to think about Poe's jacket and how it had smelled exactly the same.

"You looking for something?" It was Suralinda, lurking in the shadow of an X-wing. Finn recognized her at once, even in the dimness. After all, she was kind of hard to miss.

"Uh, yeah." He shifted awkwardly under her intense stare. "I'm actually looking for Poe. You seen him around?"

"He just left." Suralinda's smile was sharp-toothed, her eyes narrowed. "He, Karé, and Jess are headed for Corellia on an emergency mission to rescue Resistance sympathizers from some kind of hostage situation. I was supposed to go with them, but I have an article on known First Order supporters to finish before tomorrow morning and I have a feeling it might do as much good for post-war efforts as their mission."

Finn's heart sank like a rock in quicksand. "Oh. You know when he'll be back?"

She laughed. "Dameron? No idea. Whenever he feels like it, I guess."

Finn tried not to let his frustration show on his face or in his tone. "Can you let me know if you hear from him?"

"Sure." She examined her nails. "But I won't hear from him."

Finn turned away. He faced the hangar, vast and silent and empty. "Thanks." His voice was as hollow as his heart. "See you later."

"Later," said Suralinda. "If I do hear from him, I'll tell him you were looking for him."

"No," Finn said, a little too quickly. "Just... don't do that. It's nothing. I'll talk to him later."

Before she could reply, he walked away, back across the hangar and out into the gathering storm.

**Author's Note:**

> Finn and Poe are gay pining idiots, Rey is a lesbian, and Rey and Finn are each other's family. Welcome to my incredibly self-indulgent take on the Star Wars universe.


End file.
